We are actually pretty excited to see that industrial pioneers KMFDM will be returning to the Twin Cities on August 15 at Mill City Nights in Minneapolis. ..…

Industrial rock pioneers KMFDM stopped by Minneapolis' Mill City Nights last night, in support of their latest Salvation EP.

Inertia

London-based Inertia (not to be confused with New Jersey's Inertia. or Spain's Inertia) opened up the show, starting slightly a little after the time advertised. The band is missing singer/drummer Alexys B, who was a large part of the band pre-2011. For whatever reasons, but I suspect it may have something to do with the fact that she was beaten up in December 2012 by six girls (the case is unsolved, you can read about it here), and she just needed a break from the band to recover (mentally and physically).

Now a trio (Reza Udhin, Andrew Lowlife, and Tim Stephens) played alternative industrial/techno music, but with a hint of goth and darkwave. You can tell they must love The Cure or Information Society.

They kicked off their forty-minute set with their new single "Dark Valentine", followed by its B-side "Stormfront"... The rest of their set seemed to be taken from Universal Blood (Metropolis Records), including "Streaming".

Chant

Next up was Austin's Chant (not to be confused with San Jose's Chant, New Haven's The Chant, or Madison's Chants). The band previously toured with KMFDM (you can read about their Minneapolis stop in 2013), and usually when bands are offered opening slots again, I can tell that the two bands are close friends and/or have high respect for each other. If people weren't familiar with Chant, by the end of their set, they clearly won over some newfound fans.

Their impressive setup included a double drum set, which took center stage, complete with double tom-toms, multiple snares, four cymbals, bass drum, and a trash can. Yes, a trash can. I actually really love synchronized drumming (as evident by my love for Gold Fields), and when you can get three simultaneous drums going, it is fantastic.

Most of their songs on their nearly hour long set were taken from their latest album Brave New Apocalypse (which came out in July 2015 via WTII Records), including title track/intro track "Brave New Apocalypse" and "Dead Muse". A couple of tracks from their "old" album Strong Words For Strong People were thrown in, including "Revolt" and the set closer "Blood + Peace".

Highlight of their set was "Point and Click", which singer/band leader Bradley Bills changed the lyrics "Pride runs through my veins and I am free" changed to "KMFDM will set you free" (which got a nice response from the audience).

Looking around at the audience last night, I saw a lot of fans wearing KMFDM T-Shirts. These are fans who have seen the band previously, multiple times, and will continue to see the band when they come back. It's almost cult-like, and as long as KMFDM continue making records and touring, they'll continue to move a ton of BRUTE! T-Shirts. In fact, by the end of the night, I would say more than half of the audience bought the new Salvation T-Shirts. Prices were reasonable, $20 for a regular T-Shirt and $50 for a button-style militant KMFDM shirt (despite being more expensive, the button shirts were so popular they only had a handful of medium and small sizes at last night's show).

For those who aren't familiar with KMFDM (Kein Mehrheit Für Die Mitleid, not Kill Mother-F**** Depeche Mode), they are a German band who formed in 1984. Along with Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson, KMFDM helped brought industrial music to a mainstream audience in the 90's. By 1999, KMFDM broke up and band leader Sascha Konietzko, along with Lucia Cifarelli and Tim Skold, formed MDFMK (KMFDM backwards)... which was probably done as a result of trying to get out of their record contract. Once the Universal settled, the band started using KMFDM again in 2002.

When KMFDM took the stage at 11pm, singer Sascha, in dark sunglasses and an army-green KMFDM grenade T-Shirt, looked too cool for school, singing "One for the money, two for the show, three to get ready now go, kids, go." with effortless ease. He's actually looks really relaxed and comfortable on stage, instead letting his wife Lucia (who joined them on stage with "Light") to do most of the energetic heavy-lifting.

Setlist

The setlist consisted of some newer material, mostly because they probably need to give Lucia something to do - since she wasn't part of KMFDM pre-1999. Having said that, any early songs sounded great anyway with Lucia's dueling vocals.

Highlight of their set for me was seeing Sascha pull out the loudspeaker to sing "Terror", looking exactly like the cover artwork to We are KMFDM... and also the title track from their 2005 album Hau Ruck, which ended their set.

For the encore, as predicted, they returned back on stage to play their biggest hit song "A Drug Against War", featuring the catchy anthem chorus "KMFDM is the drug against war." This is followed by two older tracks, 1999's "Adios" and 1990's "Godlike".

I think KMFDM is on the right track, as far as their business model goes. It's the old model, but it works: tour the world with live shows, meeting their fans in person, keeping personal contacts with their fans, and selling a billion shirts. It works, I've seen it with KMFDM and other bands.

We are very proud and extremely excited to announce the release of our EP 'Friends' on August 13th. We will be having our release show on the 13th at the 7th Street Entry with our best friends, Rupert Angeleyes, Real Numbers and Bruise Violet. Here is a peek at the EP cover. Stay tuned for more info and for the first track off of 'friends' coming soon. See you there.

Can you believe that Lynch Mob is back with their eighth studio album Rebel this August 21st (in two weeks)? The 25 years+ band is still going strong. Fans who pre-ordered the album via iTunes will receive an instant download of “Automatic Fix,” which singer Oni Logan noted,
“This is an interesting song in that it was the last song that was recorded vocally. I initially thought that it might be best used as instrumental. I simply love this song because of its energy and attitude.”

Lynch Mob formed in 1989 after George Lynch parted ways with his former band Dokken. This year marks the 25th Anniversary of Lynch Mob's debut release Wicked Sensation.

Downtread and Metalships to open.

Expect the band to do some of their biggest hits, plus preview new songs from Rebel on this tour:

Sure, we've already mentioned German band KMFDM's tour earlier in July, but as of this writing, it does not seem Black December will be able to make it. And just a reminder that the industrial band will be playing at Mill City Nights next Saturday. I have been looking over their tour merchandise and pre-planning on which Brute! T-Shirts I'm going to pick up at the show.